Czechia Archives - The3DTravel Self-guided audio walking tours Mon, 12 Oct 2026 11:34:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://the3dtravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/the3dtravel-icon-512-100x100.png Czechia Archives - The3DTravel 32 32 Two Balconies: Communist Prague 1948 to 1989 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-two-balconies/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:29:57 +0000 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-two-balconies/ From Gottwald's balcony on Old Town Square to Havel's on Wenceslas Square, on the streets where Prague lived it

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On one balcony in February 1948, a Communist leader spoke as his party took power, and the photograph of that day was later retouched to erase a man who stood beside him. On another, in November 1989, a playwright just out of prison and the exiled reformer of 1968 stood side by side above a square full of people jingling their keys. This walk goes from the first balcony to the second and on to the top of Wenceslas Square: the student march of 17 November 1989 and its bronze hands, the theater that became a revolution’s headquarters, the museum front still patched where soldiers fired on it in 1968, and the two students, Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc, whose protest in 1969 Prague took twenty years to honor by name. Every claim is sourced and every dispute labeled; the record speaks, not the guide. No tickets needed.

The stops

  1. Jan Palach Square: Named Twice
  2. The Kinský Balcony: A Photograph and a Hat
  3. Národní 16: Bare Hands
  4. The Adria Palace: The Magic Lantern
  5. Můstek: A Lorry and a Square
  6. Melantrich: The Borrowed Balcony
  7. Wenceslas Square 39: Jan Zajíc
  8. The Statue and the Scarred Museum
  9. The Cross in the Pavement: Jan Palach

Finding the start

Start on Jan Palach Square (náměstí Jana Palacha) at the corner of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, by the bronze Jan Palach memorial plate, with the Rudolfinum across the tram street. Staroměstská metro station (line A) is about 100 meters away; trams stop at Staroměstská on 17. listopadu.

Terrain and access

About 2.9 kilometers on city streets and squares, step-free, with cobbles on most of the route and a gentle climb up Wenceslas Square at the end. No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside. Tram tracks are crossed on zebras and at one unmarked crossing; the only traffic lights are in front of the National Museum. The upper half of Wenceslas Square is a tram construction site until about mid-2027, so the last three stops may need small detours along signed walkways. The tour ends beside Muzeum metro station (lines A and C, with a lift at one entrance).

Tickets

No admissions needed; everything is seen from outside.

Keep going

What you get

  • An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
  • Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
  • Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
  • Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
  • Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

The post Two Balconies: Communist Prague 1948 to 1989 appeared first on The3DTravel.

]]> Josefov: A Thousand Years of Jewish Prague https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-josefov/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:29:43 +0000 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-josefov/ From Kafka's corner to the cemetery wall: what the old Jewish Town kept, and who kept it

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Around 1900 Prague tore down almost all of its old Jewish Town. Six synagogues, a town hall and a cemetery were left standing. This walk goes from one to the next, entirely from the street, and asks at each what was kept and who kept it: the oldest synagogue in Europe still used for prayer and the rabbi who became famous for a legend he had nothing to do with; the emperor’s banker whose fortune was seized after his death; a town hall clock that runs backward; the city official who settled the claims for the demolished houses and helped found a museum to save what was inside them; the curators of 1942 who kept the possessions of families being deported; the names on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue; and a cemetery the city could only trim. Real people, named from the record, told with care. Because nothing on the walk needs a ticket, it works any day, including Saturdays and Jewish holidays when the museum is closed.

The stops

  1. Kafka’s Corner: What Was Kept
  2. The Spanish Synagogue: The Brother and the Sisters
  3. Pařížská: The Avenue Over the Ghetto
  4. The Old-New Synagogue: The Rabbi Before the Legend
  5. The Jewish Town Hall: A Clock That Runs Backward
  6. The Klausen and the Ceremonial Hall: Saved From the Wreckage
  7. The Maisel Synagogue: The Emperor’s Banker
  8. The Pinkas Synagogue: A Museum for No One
  9. The Cemetery Wall: The Ground That Was Not Leveled

Finding the start

Start on náměstí Franze Kafky, the small square at the north-west corner of Old Town Square, between the church of St. Nicholas and the corner house with the bronze bust of Kafka. From Staroměstská metro (line A) walk east along Kaprova street, about 400 meters.

Terrain and access

Flat, about one and a half kilometers, with no steps on the route; setts and cobbles nearly everywhere, bumpy for wheelchairs and strollers. Thirteen street crossings, all zebras or unmarked, no traffic lights; the tram street 17. listopadu is not crossed. Crowded around the Old-New and Pinkas synagogues at midday. No admissions needed: everything is told from the street, and the museum’s sites are only pointed to. Staroměstská metro (line A) is about 400 meters from the start and 250 meters from the end and has no step-free entrance.

Tickets

No admissions needed: everything is told from the street.

Keep going

What you get

  • An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
  • Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
  • Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
  • Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
  • Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

The post Josefov: A Thousand Years of Jewish Prague appeared first on The3DTravel.

]]> Down from the Castle: Kings, Habsburgs and the Window of 1618 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-down-from-the-castle/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:29:31 +0000 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-down-from-the-castle/ A war that began with three men thrown from a window, followed downhill from the Castle gate to the Old Town

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In May 1618 the Protestant lords of Bohemia threw two of the emperor’s governors and their secretary out of a window of Prague Castle. All three survived, and the Thirty Years’ War began. This walk follows that story downhill, outside the Castle gates: the Castle’s Habsburg front and a gate of 1614, the window and the four ways people explained the survival, the house where it was planned the night before, the square the winners rebuilt after White Mountain, the kings’ coronation road, Charles IV’s bridge and the palindrome legend, a saint put up for the wrong anniversary, the tower the Swedes never got past in 1648, the Jesuits who were expelled and came back to take over the old university, and the theater that carries the losers’ name, where Don Giovanni had its premiere. Mostly downhill, by the Castle Steps or by a no-stairs way down Nerudova. No tickets needed.

The stops

  1. Hradčany Square: The Castle from the Gate
  2. Above the Castle Steps: The Window of 1618
  3. The Smiřický Palace: The Night Before
  4. The Upper Square: What Victory Built
  5. The Bridge Towers: The Kings’ Road
  6. Charles Bridge: The Emperor’s Stone Bridge
  7. John of Nepomuk: The Winners’ Saint
  8. The Old Town Bridge Tower: Where the Siege Ended
  9. The Clementinum: Two Universities
  10. The Estates Theater: The Losers’ Name

Finding the start

Start on Hradčany Square, about 30 meters in front of the main gate of Prague Castle with the fighting giants on its piers. From the tram stop Pohořelec (trams 22 and 23) it is about 800 meters along Loretánská; from the tram stop Pražský hrad you can walk through the Castle courtyards to the square (security check).

Terrain and access

Mostly downhill, with about 25 meters of gentle climbing in all, about 2.8 kilometers (about 3 kilometers by the no-stairs variant), almost entirely on cobbles. The main route goes down the Castle Steps, a long stairway with a handrail (OpenStreetMap estimates about 200 steps). The no-stairs variant goes down the steep cobbled ramp Ke Hradu and Nerudova street instead, about 270 meters longer, with no steps; the walk says where it begins. Tram tracks cross Malostranské náměstí. Charles Bridge, Mostecká, Karlova and Old Town Square are very crowded from late morning, so an early start is best. No admissions needed; the tour has no narrated stop inside the Castle gates, and the Castle grounds ban playing sound aloud, so use earbuds.

Tickets

No admissions needed; the tour tells the Castle from outside its gates.

Keep going

What you get

  • An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
  • Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
  • Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
  • Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
  • Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

The post Down from the Castle: Kings, Habsburgs and the Window of 1618 appeared first on The3DTravel.

]]> Prague After Dark: Alchemists, the Golem and the Morning of 21 June 1621 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-after-dark/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:29:19 +0000 https://the3dtravel.com/tours/prague-after-dark/ Rudolf II's stargazers and gold-makers, a clay giant younger than you think, and the morning twenty-seven men died on the square

The post Prague After Dark: Alchemists, the Golem and the Morning of 21 June 1621 appeared first on The3DTravel.

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Prague is a city of legends: a clay giant in a synagogue attic, a clockmaker blinded by his councillors, a knight turned to iron. This walk tells every one of them, and labels each as a legend. Then it shows you the true stories, which are stranger. The house where Kepler worked out how the planets move, and lost his family. The square near which an English scryer talked to angels for an emperor’s gold. The book of 1909 that turned the Golem into a hero. The document of 1410 that gave the real clockmaker his name back. The grave of Tycho Brahe, whose silver nose was brass. And the morning of 21 June 1621, when twenty-seven men died on Old Town Square, and twelve of their heads went up on the tower where this walk begins. History, not horror: real people, named and told with care. Made for the evening on lit streets, finishing well before ten, and just as good by day. No tickets needed.

The stops

  1. The Bridge Tower: Six Faces Toward the Old Town
  2. Karlova 4: Kepler Counts the Planets
  3. Bethlehem Square: Angels in a Crystal
  4. Mariánské náměstí: A Rabbi and a Knight
  5. The Old-New Synagogue: The Attic and the Author
  6. The Astronomical Clock: The Master Who Lost His Name
  7. Týn Church: A Funeral and a Melted Chalice
  8. Týnská 7: The Old Man Who Came Back
  9. Twenty-Seven Crosses

Finding the start

Start on Křižovnické náměstí, the small square at the Old Town end of the Charles Bridge, just east of the Old Town Bridge Tower, facing the tower. From Staroměstská metro (line A) walk south along Křižovnická street to the square, about five minutes; trams 2, 17 and 18 stop at Karlovy lázně, two minutes south.

Terrain and access

About 2.3 kilometers through the Old Town and the edge of Josefov, flat, with no steps on the route. Setts on almost every lane and square, slippery when wet. One signalized crossing of a tram street at the start and about ten zebras across quiet streets. Lit streets throughout, except a short stretch of the lane Týnská. Made for the evening: start by about 20:15 to finish well before 22:00; from May to August that means a walk in dusk rather than darkness. Works just as well by day. No admissions; the Old-New Synagogue and Týn Church are seen from outside only. From late November to early January the Christmas market on Old Town Square can hide the crosses at the last stop. Old Town Square and Karlova are crowded by day and busy late at night: mind your bag and phone.

Tickets

No admissions.

Keep going

What you get

  • An email from tours@the3dtravel.com with a link and an access code.
  • Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
  • Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
  • Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
  • Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.

Image credits

The post Prague After Dark: Alchemists, the Golem and the Morning of 21 June 1621 appeared first on The3DTravel.

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